Honey Of A Tea

We hosted a 'Make It With Honey ' potluck here with the local beekeeper's group, Lacamas Beekeepers. Since the table was already mostly set, and the sun / rain covering was up , 2 of my granddaughters decided to host their own tea the next day and invited my youngest sister to join us. Here is a close up of the sugar dish and creamer we used. ( Not the best picture of my sister below, but my granddaughters were so excited to have her here I needed to add her picture. Sorry sister. )

The teacups are from the Gracie China  Chintz Collection , made in China. There is a mint green teacup and saucer that also goes with this set, but I did not use it for our potluck, so it was not out for our granddaughters to set the table. I love these teacups. They claim to be dishwasher safe, but with the gold rims and edging on the handles I prefer to wash them by hand. I find I love washing my china, teacups, and crystal by hand , giving me even more time to appreciate my simple treasures.

As you can see, my granddaughters love their tea-parties.

The granddaughters are getting very creative with tea-parties too.For this tea party they also invited their American Girl dolls. The dolls had their own china teacups. The doll set of china was used by this granddaughter's own mommy , our daughter, many years ago.

Tea was poured for Julie, Kanani, and Samantha. Freshly picked from our gardens berries were served. (A few un-ripe grapes were picked too.)

The girls allowed me to take and post their picture.
 

Here is a better picture of the quilt I won from the Lacamas sewing group a few years ago. The theme of the local Lacamas Community Fair was Bee Happy. Honeybees were used throughout the quilt and I thought this quilt was the perfect back-drop  for our Make It With Honey potluck. When I have time I will post the food, recipes, and summary of this lovely time on my husband's beekeeping blog *. This past year has been very busy for him, and yes, he is tending his bees well, already harvested a lot of honey, but with the passing of his parents this year, and other responsibilities, he has not had time to keep his blog current. Lord willing ,time will come for that. For now I hope you enjoyed our honey of a tea !

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16::24

 

I am linking up with these ladies for Tea-Time Tuesday :

 

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

Bernideen at Bernideen's Tea time Blog *

Martha at Martha's Favorites *

 



Bee Tea & Quilt ~ Tea Time Tuesday

It is Tea~Time Tuesday again and I have missed joining in the fun lately. I have enjoyed being a part of this blogging party celebrating all things tea, so even though there were so many things I needed to get done today, I set them aside and brewed myself a pot of tea. Doesn't this bee-hive teapot with matching sugar & creamer make you smile? It is so sun-shiny happy during the cold, dark, days of February. Last week I just wanted to brighten things up and spread a cheery quilt made by the sewing & quilting ladies of Lacamas Community Center. ( they are now meeting at Ohop Grange)

I am showing you snippets and squares of the quilt that particularly celebrate bees.

Notice the detail of that tiny strip between the green & black fabric.

Did you think I would forget to show a teacup or two on Tea Time Tuesday? It was hard coming up with a teacup that fit in with the honeybee theme, but I like these not- too- delicate rose chintz patterned cups & saucers. Honeybees need flowers to make honey. A bright yellow teacup would be nice here too,maybe even better, but I still like the chintz for this setting.

Click onto the picture for enlargement.The teacups are Rose Chintz Gracie China, made in China. The two teacups are from a set of 4, and are perfect for tea parties with grandchildren. Real china, affordable, & dishwasher safe too.

Click onto any picture, it will enlarge and you'll be able to see the bees in the quilt squares.

It just makes me happy to see the quilt and teapot on my table, bee happy !

I am linking up with the ladies listed below for Tea Time Tuesday .

• Terri at Artful Affirmations *
• Martha at Martha's Favorites *
• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

The teapot, sugar & creamer were purchased at Fred Meyer's just last week. How could I not buy such a happy trio, especially when my husband is a bee-keeper? "Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing to the body." Proverbs 16:24

Jeannie's Quilts ~ 'Liberty Or Death'

Jeannie Austin is amazing. Her quilts show a woman who is not only talented in quilting, but design, family history, story-telling, and sharing her skills with the community .Her love of quilting spills over into her family & community in great abundance. Because so many wanted to see her quilts and photograph them , Jeannie brought them to the Lacamas Community Center in our little community and with help, hung them up for photographing. There were a few of us snapping pictures and I missed some very good shots of her quilts, but I hope the pictures I did capture show her quilts in good light. Please click onto any pictures you want enlarged for better viewing. Close-up of one square. Jeannie's quilts are stories told in fabric, and most of her quilts are fabric & thread stitching her family history.I wish I had taken notes on what she was saying as each quilt was unfurled to be photographed, and this post shows only one quilt. I will be sharing the quilts I photographed in coming posts, but really feel her quilts are works of art . I think she could hold a quilt show and easily fill a large room with them. I did not get pictures of the backs and bindings of the quilts, but they too, were worthy of their own display.Jeannie inspired me to sew with care, creativity, and an attitude of sewing for the future generations to come. With the high price of fabric, the rarity of hand-sewn & hand-quilted items, combined with the love invested in a quilt, it is well to consider the design and future of any quilt you set your heart to make, and make it well! * I am thankful for women who freely share their skills and knowledge with other women , thereby passing on the joy of creating a life well-lived and well-loved within the means and abilities God has granted .

Spot On Some of My Quilts

This is a quilt I made almost 2 decades ago. Obviously I did not finish it. I started it when we lived in Tacoma and worked on it every once in awhile after we moved out here to the country. During our years of building our home, home-schooling our children and all the family events in between I cut and pieced this little bit of a quilt top using used fabrics cut away from old clothes, scraps of fabric left over after other sewing projects, and some new fabrics bought in the sale bins of fabric stores I would frequent. I finally tacked it up on the wall in our spare bedroom, maybe I will finish the top , add batting and backing and quilt this one day. For now there are so many other things I would prefer to do, besides, I have a sister and friends who are very talented with quilting and love to add their quilts to my collection. "Quilters touch the past and the future." I won this quilt!Many of the women in our community made quilt blocks and after entering the blocks in the Lacamas Community Fair, they got together on their sewing day in the community hall to assemble two quilts using the collected quilt blocks that had been judged at the fair. The raffle tickets for the two quilts were drawn at the Lacamas Christmas Bazaar and I won first choice of the two quilts! "A bed without a quilt is like the sky without stars." ( click to enlarge and see the detail in the quilt blocks)) I chose this quilt because of the lambs and the bees. The theme of the fair, and the quilt itself, was "You have to bee here..." and fair type and honeybee squares fill the quilt, with the prize-ribbon fabric being the unifying fabric. "A quilt is a treasure which follows its' owner everywhere."

Don't you just love this happy quilt?"When life gives you scraps-make a quilt."

"Good friends are like quilts. They age with you, yet never lose their warmth." "May your sorrows be patched and your joys quilted."